The Pentagon said on Monday it was helping to collect evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, in the face of the possibility of future prosecutions to bring the perpetrators to justice.
US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby told a news conference that they are contributing “to the investigation process”.
“Whatever comes out of this is not a decision that will be made by the Pentagon leadership,” the spokesperson explained.
Kirby stressed that the US is seeing “indiscriminate attacks against Ukrainian civilians” by Russia and stressed that “in many cases they are intentional”.
“Clearly, (the Russians) are causing a large number of civilian casualties,” he declared.
Both US President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
For now, the State Department has not made a formal statement against Russia for committing war crimes, but has announced that it has opened a “legal” review in this regard.
On Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock promised that Western countries would hold Russia accountable using “all available means and mechanisms”.
“The courts will decide, but for me they are war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Baerbock said in a speech at the European Humanitarian Forum, jointly organized in Brussels by the European Commission and the French Council presidency.
During this forum, several European Union (EU) foreign ministers spoke about protecting civilians in war.
#Pentagon #helps #collect #evidence #Russias #war #crimes #Ukraine